


Hikago Battle Bingo Entries

by mmmdraco



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Drabble Collection, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-14
Updated: 2012-11-14
Packaged: 2017-11-18 16:06:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 4,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/562868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Over at the <a href="http://hikarunogo.dreamwidth.org">hikarunogo com</a>, the lovely <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/Qem/pseuds/Qem">Qem</a> ran some Battle Bingo. These are my fills.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Shindou Hikaru

Hikaru is pretty sure that if the girl across the aisle from him on the train doesn't shut up pretty soon, then he's not only going to yell at her, but he may grab her phone and throw it. It takes approximately 5 minutes for Hikaru to call Akira and make plans for the evening, even if they've decided to do something other than play go, so he doesn't understand why this girl is still talking about which cafe she and her boyfriend are going to meet at and which pastry they'll share and whether she'll get an espresso or a latte when all that should matter is that they're meeting up. 

But, obviously, Hikaru doesn't understand girls. And that's why he doesn't want to date them. Plus, Akira's prettier and smells better and knows his way around a go ban. The one thing Akira is not, however, is prompt about returning Hikaru's headphones. If he'd had the headphones, he could drown out the girl's incessant yapping.

The girl mentioned buying couples t-shirts. It took everything Hikaru had to keep his mouth shut. Akira was definitely going to have to buy him ramen to make up for this.


	2. Touya Akira

"Yes, I'll see you on Monday morning," Akira said as he massaged the back of his neck. He hung up the phone and turned to Ashiwara. "There. Chiropractor appointment made. Are you happy?"

"Happy that my friend is finally considering his health and well-being now that he's hit 30? Yes."

"You weren't lying when you said that the body started to deteriorate then." Akira rolled his shoulders and tilted his head left and right.

With a nod, Ashiwara patted Akira's shoulder. "I don't know why you wouldn't believe me. We're not old yet, but we're certainly closer to that then we are to young."

Akira yawned. "I think I'll schedule acupuncture on the same day. It can't hurt going into my next oteai game rejuventared."

Ashiwara laughed. "Go take a nap, old man."

"I just might." Akira winced as his shoulder popped as he rolled it forward again. "Who would have thought the mind sports could be this hard on one's body?"


	3. Le Ping

It was tough for Le Ping to get anyone in Japan to notice him. Not that he'd been many places in Japan, really. It was mostly just a few places for games of go, or restaurants with fellow go players, and everyone there saw him as a clone of Isumi's friend, Waya, which would have been great if everyone actually liked Waya.

Unfortunately for Le Ping, Waya had the same distinction of being loud that Le Ping himself had, and that did nothing to endear him to his peers unless looks were very deceiving. So Le Ping ignored them since they were ignoring him, and clutched on to Isumi whenever possible and used his native tongue and laughed as Isumi attempted to respond in kind. Le Ping liked to have a lot of friends wherever he went, but he supposed one good one was enough to have in a foreign country, even if go was taking him there more and more often.


	4. Ko Yeongha

Ko Yeongha considered many different paths in life before considering baduk. He was a child model and never lost his looks, so he could have stayed with it, but it was boring to stand there and look attractive. He could have become an idol, but he wasn't a terribly good singer and not a very good actor, and what was the point of doing something if you weren't going to be good at it? His playing baduk was almost a legacy issue, too, since more members of his family had won some kind of award for baduk than hadn't, and he wasn't one to go out of his way to disappoint his family. 

It bothered him, sometimes, how baduk could consume him so completely. If he looked at it clinically, it could be as boring as modeling had and it wasn't like his lifestyle inspired jealousy in others his age, but it was something he'd chosen for himself, even if it was almost fulfulling his destiny. 

Still, people were fascinating, and when he played baduk... he did get to meet a lot of very fascinating people.


	5. Natsume

He isn't sure, really, what made him let Mitani-kun drag him to the go club long ago. Because go itself was fun enough and his mom was always after him to have more extracurriculars and it was sort of cool to be in a club that was kind of both a culture club and a sports club. But, really, it was probably the girls. It was Fujisaki-san, at first, who drew his interest. But by the time graduation day rolled around, it was Kumiko-chan who was firmly entrenched in his heart. They would graduate from high school together in a little less than a month and Natsume Ryou would propose. The thought only filled him with half as much trepidation as the look on Mitani-kun's face had when he'd first said that Natsume was coming to the go club or else.


	6. Tsuda Kumiko

When she first joins the go club, it's not about go. She knows what the game is, but she's pretty certain the stones could place themselves better than she's able to. Still, with everyone else's help, she learns. She thinks that she's started too late to get really good, but Akari assures her that Shindou, who is a pro now, hasn't been playing for very long at all, so maybe there's a chance of seeing the name Tsuda Kumiko on some important kifu at some point in the future. Each game is a hurdle on the way to that distinction, and she's getting better. Even the losses are starting to have moments of brilliance that shine in them and she's glad, really glad, that she wanted to join a club and that she was asked to play a game.


	7. Saeki Kouji

"You know, Shigeko-chan, I hear that Waya-kun just got a good-paying gig teaching some rich guy's kids!" 

Shigeko's eyes widened as she appraised Waya. "Hmm, he looks like the wild type, doesn't he?"

Saeki nodded. "Totally wild. The only thing he's responsible about it go."

Nodding, Shigeko strode over to Waya and smiled broadly. "Waya-kun, don't you think it's time you take me out for shortcake?"

As a flustered Waya tried to respond, Saeki sat back with a grin. His wallet was thin enough after going drinking with Ashiwara the night before. Waya actually liked Shigeko, so maybe this would work out great for all three of them.


	8. Yang Hai

People gave Yang Hai enough grief about how he liked cute girls that no one thought to look beyond that as to why he liked idols in particular, and especially the ones who sang ridiculously cutesy songs about love. And it was a good thing, because they would give him so much more grief about the fact that he liked the music and he liked the personalities the girls have, whether they were real or some made-up contrivance. (He didn't like all of the made-up ones as a few of them were way too obvious and that made it lose something.) It didn't hurt when the girls wore bikinis and smiled and shilled products on TV, but the bits he liked best were the girls as people rather than products and the upbeat music that didn't have to mean anything and still managed to make him happy. 

He was still working on scheduling a trip to see Isumi when he would get a chance to see one of the big concerts. He hadn't decided yet if he'd try to drag Isumi along, but it would be fun to see if he could get Isumi to wave around some extra glow sticks so he could support more than one girl. 

If anyone had guessed at his true idol love, it was Isumi who had somehow managed to accidentally access the secret folder on Yang Hai's hard drive filled with clips of his favorite idols talking about makeup and which idols in their company they had sleepovers with and even the specials of one of his favorite groups visiting Hawaii. Yang Hai wasn't certain if Isumi thought it was some weird thing that people in China did or if he understood in some small way, but he hadn't said anything about it. 

Thinking about it, Yang Hai decided he'd offer to get a ticket for Isumi to whichever concert he ended up going it, but wouldn't force him. After all, in truth, he wasn't even sure that Isumi liked girls.


	9. Gokiso-pro

He hadn't intended to do anything shady at first. Hell, there was a time when Gokiso-pro was practically a synonym for integrity. Then his wife had fallen ill and the medical bills had been too much... Enough that he'd gone to take out a loan, but no one was lending. None of the loan officers seemed to understand that his ranking in go was not some permanant thing and that he would start bringing in more money as time went on.

He'd turned to a loan shark just before he was set to compete in the last match of the Tengen finals because he knew he was going to win. But he'd miscalculated a single move and lost by a half moku. When the loan shark came for him, he had spouted off a lot of nonsense to save himself and had somehow ended up suggesting that he could make the money back for them by selling go ban for more than their worth. 

It had started as that, but it grew into a game in its own right. Each sale was a con and each con was a surge of adrenaline. He'd paid the loan off by now, but he couldn't seem to stop. The loan shark blackmailed him to keep him paying up, but Gokiso got to keep most of the profits now, so it seemed like a win-win situation as long as no one found out.

His wife didn't know. She thought the money was from go. Gokiso couldn't tell her otherwise without risking the fact that she might end up in the hospital again since her heart was still weak from the illness. So he was careful.

But after a while, careful didn't cut it. It wasn't enough to be the man his wife had married when he was at home and to only take those small risks when he was at work. So he got help creating a forgery of Shuusaku's signature on a go ban and put it out for sale. Just the thought of selling it to some unsuspecting person made his heart race. And it wasn't like anyone could tell...


	10. Fujisaki Akari

Akari couldn't help but notice that Hikaru brought out characteristics in people that they didn't otherwise have. She was a normal girl, really, but around Hikaru, she got a little whiny (not to mention that he turned her toward go). Akira was a very mild-mannered boy most of the time, but Hikaru turned him into a brat (not that different than Hikaru, really). Hikaru had even talked about an older guy named Ogata who stalked him and touched him inappropriately, and Akira swore that the man didn't do that kind of thing to anything else. Akari wondered if there was some kind of chromosomal defect with go players and Hikaru was their king. It seemed to explain a lot.


	11. Kuwabara Honinbou - I

A lot of Kuwabara's rivals had already died off. It was a sobering thing, really, to challenge for a title that one of your peers had left behind when they went to the afterlife. It didn't stop him from really trying for it, though. Or from winning. He had a period of time when he was on top of the world. His Honinbou title had been earned, damn it. It was his identity now. 

But things were getting boring, now. The same dozen people were the only ones really competing for the top spots any given year, and Kuwabara was bored with them. The same games with the same moves played with the same rhythm and Kuwabara almost wanted to die because he was bored with go.

But then came Ogata Seiji. He was just entering the upper echelons of the go world, but Kuwabara could see his promise and read his aura that flashed so bright sometimes that Kuwabara was excited to play him. When it came time to play him in a title match, Kuwabara knew he'd have to pull out all of his tricks in order to win. But that was excitement, and that was what kept men alive who might otherwise not be.


	12. Kuwabara Honinbou - II

Something that not a lot of people knew was that Kuwabara Honinbou had a family. His wife had passed away a decade ago, but he had five children who lived on, busy though they were with their own lives. He had a half a dozen grandchildren he doted on when he saw them, and one great-grandchild on the way. He wasn't really a family man, though. His wife had been his wife, but go had been his mistress: the temptress. Go was what he went to when the rest of the world was treating him poorly. It showed now in his life. He had his fame, as much as you could call being a top-tier go pro in Japan "fame", and he had his fans, and he had his go. It didn't quite make up for the fact that his family didn't think to call or visit him any more than he did for them, but it counted for something. Only time would tell if it counted for enough.


	13. Ichiryuu Kisei

There are two things that Ichiryuu knows about himself beyond all other things: he talks too much, and people think he looks like Buddha. He's missed his train before for both reasons. He'd be talking to whoever was working the counter at the Ki-in shop and not shut up soon enough and get to the station just in time to see his train leaving, or a tourist would stop him and want a picture and the only word he'd be able to make out would be 'Buddha' and then he'd end up turned around and unable to find the right entrance to the station for a while. If he were younger, he'd just get his license and be done with the train, but he was too old for that nonsense now. So he'd keep on playing on the 'Net when he could because there he didn't have to worry about trains and talking too much and Buddha, and he also didn't have to worry about pants.


	14. Shirakawa Michio

Michio knew he wasn't really a great judge of talent in go. He saw talent in every move that overpowered an opponent, and in every expression of joy that showed while playing. So he taught beginners, mostly, where his enthusiasm for their talent wouldn't be overwhelming and wouldn't bolster them toward a pro career they'd never have. Still, it surprised him to see Shindou turn pro, and so quickly too. He'd had enthusiasm for the boy, sure, but not nearly as much as he'd had for others who had come through that same class. If he hadn't known already that he was no judge of talent, he'd have known it well after that.


	15. Fujiwara no Sai

In the afterlife, finally there after so many years, Sai was finally able to reflect on his life, his death, and his time thereafter. His first realization was, strangely, one of his own mortality. Then, of his selfishness. And finally, of his greatness. In all of the years that he had played go, how many players had he spurred to even greater heights? As Honinbo Shuusaku, how much of the current go landscape was his own making? As sai, how many countries had he shown his go to? The afterlife brought as many questions as answers, and if he could no longer have go, he could at least have the eternal mysteries to ponder.


	16. Tsubaki Toshirou

Running a hand over his face, Tsubaki Toshirou sighed. It never failed. He'd shave in the morning before work and by the time lunch came, he looked like he'd forgotten. It was annoying. So many of the men he worked with only had to shave every few days and he was jealous. 

The next morning, he overslept. Not a lot, but enough so that he decided not to shave so that he wouldn't show up too late. By lunchtime, he felt scraggly and horrible. But by the time he got home that night, it really didn't look that bad. His facial hair wasn't patchy like a lot of men had happen, so even the short length of was okay. Tsubaki decided not to shave for a few more days just to see what it was like.

When it was all a centimeter or so long, he scrutinized himself in the mirror one morning in the time he would normally take to shave. Still no patchy spots, it all grew in pretty even, and it made him look dramatically different. His thin upper lip and weak chin were completely disguised and with the dark hair framing his jaw, he looked intensely masculine. He wondered if the guys down at his favorite go salon would even recognize him, let alone his own mother.

Best of all, though, was the fact that it didn't itch like his freshly-shaven face did. That night, he bought a trimmer and practiced using it. In less than a minute, his facial hair was neatly trimmed rather than the five to ten minutes it took him to shave. Yeah. He was going to like this just fine.


	17. Kojima

As he cleaned his glasses, Kojima looked around the Kaio practice room. He wasn't the best or the worst of the people in the room, so he wasn't suddenly going to be fighting it out for a spot in the upcoming tournament or even in the one next year. He wasn't even as good as Itou, and still miles away from even Kishimoto, let alone Touya. He'd needed a club, though, since he'd made a pact with himself to never be one of the losers in the Go-Home Club, and at Kaio, there was nothing more prestigious than the go club. It was the reason a lot of people joined the club, and Kojima didn't hate it. It was a lot easier to make friends with people in a club than it was in a classroom with the teachers droning on and on, and it guaranteed you had something in common. Kojima liked go a lot. Maybe not enough to devote his life to it, but enough to devote his afternoons.


	18. Tsutsui Kimihiro

Tsutsui hated his glasses. They were almost too big for his face, so they slid down his nose even if he was looking straight ahead. Every few minutes, he was having to push his glasses back up his nose. It was annoying, but his eyesight was bad enough that he had to do something, and he couldn't stomach the thought of contacts. Putting a foreign object into your eye... intentionally? He shivered at the thought of it. And getting surgery? That seemed just as bad. Still, he was going to try to get new glasses soon. He had to do something. He'd even started to push his glasses up his nose when he wasn't wearing them!


	19. Kurata Atsushi - I

Even at his age, his mother liked to nag him about everything. She had been even more of the reason he had moved to Tokyo from Sendai than go had been. Because it was fine for a mother to care about their child and to be concerned when their proposed life path was one not often taken, but his mother had gone a step further and attempted to call the Ki-in to try to get them to turn him away because she was so worried about his future. When that had failed, she'd tried matchmaking for him which had gone horribly wrong when she seemed to be describing a completely different man to the girls who he showed up to meet, at least if their reactions were anything to go by. 

All of her actions were things that Atsushi could see the reasoning behind. They were done out of love, and even though they were annoying, she was his mother and he could deal. He knew he could. Until he was on a trip to Okinawa City and she called and asked him if he needed a blanket. He'd refused and ended the call and lay down on the bed in his hotel room with a sigh. If he'd needed a blanket, would she have brought it to him? Of all the nonsense! 

Checking his watch, Atsushi sat up and rubbed his stomach thoughtfully. He was in Okinawa City. It would be almost rude not to have sashimi for dinner. He'd heard good things about Ishimatsu down by the Awase Bay. Food now, and then sleep, and go in the morning. It sounded wonderful to him.


	20. Kurata Atsushi - II

There were a lot of things that Kurata Atsushi saw in Shindou Hikaru and liked. The kid was, in a lot of ways, a lot like Atsushi himself had been. It certainly didn't hurt that Shindou idolized him. And, man, could he put away some ramen!

It only all of the younger generation of players could be as respectful as Shindou was. Sure, they'd use formal language when the situation called for it, but they didn't seem to actually respect him the way Shindou did. They all thought they could beat him because he didn't have a title yet. They didn't seem to understand yet just how difficult a title was a get. He was closer to it than they were, though. Well, except for maybe Shindou. His meteoric rise was even putting Atsushi's to shame. And, really, Touya Kouyou's kid wasn't bad either.


	21. Hong Suyeong

Hong Su-yeong doesn't quite remember what made him take up baduk. He hadn't played it as a very small child because it was something that everyone around him did and it was quiet and boring and he was an energetic child who would much rather run around outside and dash through falling leaves than sit still and play any game, even video games. He thinks it might have happened when he was very ill and went to the hospital for a few days because his fever was so high and his uncle came to visit. He doesn't remember the visit very clearly, but he remembers that his uncle liked to carry around a magnetic board and he knows from further experience that when you're hospitalized for a fever, they don't let you run around a lot. Now he wouldn't turn away a chance at a game, but he wished he knew who to thank for instilling a love of the game in him.


	22. Yun-sensei

Yun-sensei, as he is known to his students, has been in Japan long enough that most people think he's Zainichi Korean. He supposes it's a testament to how good his Japanese has gotten over the years. He had moved to Japan initially to teach baduk. In Korea, there wasn't enough demand for teachers since baduk was a game passed on through families and Yun didn't really have much of one. He'd learned from a friend and then from classes, but he had an enthusiasm for teaching. He'd spent years learning Japanese and their variations on baduk and gotten by through playing teaching games for other Koreans in Japan. He taught math during the school day at Kaio which was fun in its own right, but teaching baduk was where the thrill was. There was a fair amount of pride to be had in how well they always performed. When he first moved to Japan, he had been treated like an outcast. Now, though, after a lot of hard work, he was a respected member of society and a beloved teacher. Life was good.


	23. Touya Kouyou

When it came to go in Japan, there were almost more people who knew the name Touya Kouyou now than knew about Honinbou Shuusaku. Jokes had been made about what it would be like if those two iconic figures played a game, and Kouyou was certain that they had. sai... There had been something about that game that Kouyou didn't feel qualified to comment on. Seiji had spoken to him about how many people had said that sai seemed like the spirit of Shuusaku infused with knowledge about modern go, and it had been amusing... until they had played and the description rang so true that Kouyou felt struck by it. Even now, years later, he'd recall moves from the game and connect them to games he had studied as a young man with hopes of building a future on his playing ability. And still, sometimes, he would find himself sitting at a go ban with the first stone placed as though sai might somehow join him and prove him right or wrong.


	24. Yashiro Kiyoharu

"You're never going to be proud of me for my accomplishments in go, are you?"

As Kiyoharu watched, his father put down his newspaper as he frowned. "What accomplishments? If you wanted to pursue something from feudal Japan, you could have gone with archery. At least that's in the Olympics."

"What would it take? Getting a title wasn't enough. Winning an international tournament wasn't enough. What if I never lost another game again?" Kiyoharu could hear the tremor in his voice as it rose in volume.

"Do you still think that there is a future to go? Even if you're riding high on it now, do you truly expect that there will be a market for your skills in five or ten years?"

Kiyoharu stood tall in front of his father. "Do you even know go's history? It's been around in some way or another for over two thousand years. It's one of the few games that a computer can't beat a pro at. It's not some passing fad, and if it goes away in my lifetime, it'll be so many years down the road that you won't live to see it."

His father scowled. "Kiyoharu, I just want to see you live a happy and successful life."

Sitting back down, Kiyoharu crossed his arms in front of him and felt a grin tug at the corners of his mouth. "And when will you get it through your head that I am?"


End file.
